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Monday, October 01, 2007

Why did he do this?

In a previous post, I briefly mentioned the disappearance of my 4th Great Grandfather, James Joslin, sometime between 1850 and 1860. That is a mystery that will likely go unsolved; it is not known whether he died or took off for parts unknown. However, there is yet another enigma concerning James. . .In July 1841 he sold 40 acres of the original 80 acres he had purchased from the government on August 25, 1838 in Whitley County, Indiana. In itself, that is in no way unusual. However, he sold it for $50 to his 16 year old son Lysander! Then, three years later, on August 1, 1844 James sold the remaining 40 acres - 20 acres to each of his other two sons, Edward and Joseph. Edward, whose name was actually Edwin, was only 14 years old at the time and Joseph was 12. That seems more than a little unusual to me. Was there no minimum age requirement for purchasing land? It just makes you wonder what was really going on. There must have been a reason that James sold the land to his young sons, but again, that's something we'll probably never find out. The land record does not provide any clues, it simply gives the basic facts involved with the sale.In the 1850 census, Lysander is the head of his own household since he is married and living with his wife and the first four of their 15 children. James too is listed as head of his own household. He does not own any real estate. Listed in James' household are Edwin, age 20 who owns real estate valued at $200 and Joseph who owns real estate valued at $160. I haven't found the records of the transactions yet, but by 1860, Lysander was sole owner of the original 80 acre tract that was purchased by James in 1838.

5 comments:

Becky, Take a look at when the deeds were recorded. Compare the dates carefully. I ran into a case in my family where two deeds were given on the same date: one buying the property (father selling to son) and the other (son selling the property to someone else). The second sale deed was for less money than the first one!! And neither deed was recorded for a period of almost three years. So check on those dates of signing and of recording. Terry ThorntonHill County of Monroe County, Mississippi

Becky, One other thing to look for in situations like this --- is the signature a mark or the person's actual signature. If a mark, look carefully at the official who signed and at the two witnesses. Sometimes strange things happened in the real estate world of yesteryear to help heirs avoid probate and problems of one's dying intestate. Just some ideas. Terry ThorntonHill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi

Perhaps James contracted an illness that he knew would eventually kill him and he set about to secure his sons' futures by giving them their inheritance through sale prior to his death rather than probate after his passing.

The oldest first and when James lived three more years to the two younger sons. Six years later James has disappeared.

There can be so many reasons. It's fun to play "what if", but the reasons were probably very innocuous.

Terry - the signatures on the copies of the land records that I have are in the same writing as the clerk that recorded the transaction. This makes sense since the transaction is being recorded after the fact.

fM - Perhaps I should also have mentioned that there is no death record for James. Indiana didn't start keeping those records until the 1880's and then only sporadically until about 1907 when it was mandated by the state. There is no obituary for him in the available newspapers for that time period. There is no cemetery record for James. Several of his granddaughters (children of his son Lysander) died in Whitley county between 1850 and 1860 and are buried in the Adams Cemetery, not far from where they lived. There is no estate record for James, no will record, no probate record, no guardianship records for what would have been his minor children had he died during that time period. The last record I have for James in Whitley County (or anywhere for that matter) is the 1850 census.

My first thought when I found this years ago was that he'd done something stupid and this was perhaps his way of protecting his land. If he didn't own it then it couldn't be taken away for bad debt or whatever.

With that in mind, there is another set of records that I have not checked yet and that is the civil court records, i.e., any actions that might have been taken against him or that he might have taken against someone else in a court of law. So that will be my next step.

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I am a GeneaHistorian and Native Hoosier who grew up in rural Kosciusko County. I served in the US Navy 1969-1979 in Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Iceland, California, and Japan. What will you find here at kinexxions? A bit of Family History, Genealogy, Research Tips, Photography, Travel, and whatever else catches my interest! My Hoosier ancestors were in Elkhart, Kosciusko, Miami, Switzerland and Whitley counties.

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2. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

3. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

In addition, it would be nice if you would send an email to kinexxions@gmail.com to let me know you are using my content. You never know, I may have more information you could use - or perhaps you might have information that I don't have.

I am more than happy to share my work. However, lots of time and energy has gone into this family history research and it 'ticks me off' to see my hard work in someone else's online tree or website and they make it appear to be their own work. If you do that, and I find out about it, you will be contacted!

The content of this site cannot be used for commercial purposes without explicit permission from the author and blog owner. This includes blogs with ads and income generating features and/or blogs or sites using feed content as a replacement for original content. Complete content usage is prohibited.

Unless otherwise noted, photographs used on this blog are mine. If you would like to use a photograph from this blog, please ask for permission before you use it. Besides, most of the photographs that are posted are low resolution. Better quality versions are available upon request.

As with any genealogical project this is a "Work in Progress" and the possibility does exist that it could contain errors, hopefully, not many.

Source information for each post is available upon request. Ask me and I'll provide the information.Please contact me if you are have an interest in any of the families presented here at kinexxions.